battalion

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. An army unit typically consisting of a headquarters and two or more companies, batteries, or similar subunits.

n. A large body of organized troops.

n. A great number: battalions of ants.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. An army unit having two or more companies, etc. and a headquarters. Traditionally forming part of a regiment.

n. an army unit having two or more companies, etc. and a headquarters; forming part of a brigade.

n. Any large body of troops.

n. A great number of things.

v. To form into battalions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A body of troops; esp. a body of troops or an army in battle array.

n. An infantry command of two or more companies, which is the tactical unit of the infantry, or the smallest command which is self-supporting upon the battlefield, and also the unit in which the strength of the infantry of an army is expressed.

transitive v. To form into battalions.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. An army in battle array.

n. In general, any distinct portion of an army or minor body of troops acting together: as, God is on the side of the largest battalions (a saying attributed to Turenne); a battalion of infantry, cavalry, grenadiers, voltigeurs, etc.

n. Technically, a body of infantry composed of two or more companies forming part of a regiment, or sometimes constituting a whole regiment.

It will be readily grasped that as each battalion is provided with one Regimental Medical Officer, where a battalion was made up from two or three militia regiments, this meant a considerable rearrangement of medical personnel.

When you hear that a Canadian battalion is going into action you have faith that it will acquit itself bravely and nobly, and you do not have to pause to ask whether it was recruited from the East or the West, from Ontario or Quebec or British Columbia.